Taper doesn’t mean it’s time to coast–here are six sprint sets to fine-tune speed and power so that you can swim fast when it matters.
Taper can be a mystifying and hugely frustrating for sprint swimmers (and coaches).
How long to taper, when to start it, how fast/slow to go, whether you should lift or not, and on and on.
In this collection of taper sprint sets, we are going to tackle every element of an explosive swim on race day.
Race readiness. Clocking race tempo. Priming the nervous system for speed. And fine-tuning your stroke to kick butt on race day.
Let’s dive in.
Resistance + Overspeed
This set pairs two sprint training favorites—and certainly during taper—pairing resisted swimming (via a drag chute, resistance tubing) with assisted swimming (tow via resistance tubing).
Alternating sprinting with resistance and assistance gives swimmers an opportunity to apply more force in their stroke and then try and sustain that force output at higher, race-relevant tempos.
The set:
- 4 rounds [15m fast with moderate/heavy resistance at 90-95% effort + 60s rest + 15m overspeed all out + 2:00-3:00 rest]
The goal isn’t to get stronger but waking up the neuromuscular system during the resisted effort and unleashing tempo on the assisted effort.
Doing this means swimmers prime force output and higher tempos, testing how much power you can put out and how quickly you can coordinate the limbs while sprinting.
Take full rest between rounds—the goal is waking up and priming the nervous system, not leaving the pool a fatigued mess.
The Overspeed Cluster
More overspeed!
This time, we are going to pair overspeed work with max effort sprinting. It’s sort of like a band-assisted jump—pure neural upregulation by launching swimmers into higher stroke rates.
- 2-3 rounds [25m assisted tow + 20s rest + 25m sprint from the block + 3:00 rest between rounds]
This type of set is great for the strength-oriented swimmer—they can catch and displace a ton of water but struggle to reach into those higher tempos typical in sprint freestyle.
Use the assisted speed to get those arms moving faster than race pace tempo, and then carry over some of that increased turnover into your regular stroke.
Note: Overspeed training should be done alongside either regular or resisted swimming, as being towed can increase stroke rate at the expense of reduced stroke length (Girold et al., 2006). The hands end up moving with the water as they are being towed, promoting a pull that slips (not ideal).
Broken swims
Broken swims are one of your classic taper sets, and sprinters can and should use them to assess readiness as the Big Meet approaches.
Do it once early in the taper to assess fatigue and again later in the taper to get a sense of where you are at in terms of recovery and readiness.
- Swim meet warm-up – do the same warm-up you are going to do on race day
- 10 minute break
- 3×25 fast on 3:00 — 85% effort, 90% effort, 95% effort – focus on feeling light and fast; opening 25 speed
- 10 minute break
- Broken 50 – 25 fast off the blocks to a touch – 10s rest – 25 fast to the wall
- Full warm down
Don’t stress out if the broken 50 is slower than you are expecting—in practice you don’t get the added juice and energy of competitive excitement.
Focus on execution of the details—hitting your turn (if racing short course) on a full stroke, and holding back just enough on the first 25 to close fast.
Race rehearsals
Another standard taper set for sprinters—race rehearsals!
Grab your tech suit, have your race day plan in hand, and let’s do a dry run for competition and see what you can do.
- Swim meet warm-up – do the same warm-up you are going to do on race day.
- Dryland PAP protocol (e.g. 2×3 squat jumps) ~10 minutes before you race
Race off the blocks:
- 100 swimmers – 35 or 50m effort at race pace
- 50 swimmers – 25 at 99% effort
This is the kind of sprint taper set that should be done during competition week, ideally 3-4 days out.
French Contrast Style Cluster
One of my absolute favorite types of sprint sets for freestylers that can be easily adjusted to the taper phase—French Contrast training.
It’s a form of complex training that goes like this: challenge your sprint freestyle in four different ways, steadily moving along the force-velocity curve, exposing the nervous system to all sorts of good stuff:
- Heavy resistance
- Light resistance
- No resistance
- Overspeed
With each step you are guiding the nervous system through a very deliberate progression from high force to high velocity.
Note: Looking for more sprint sets for tapering? Check out my book Tapering for Sprint Freestylers. It contains 98-pages of high-grade tips and sets for crushing your taper so that you can race like a boss when it matters. Learn more here.
Use short efforts, rest 20-30s between exercises, and then full rest (e.g. 3:00) between rounds.
Early in the taper, sprinters could do three rounds. Competition week, just one.
1-3 rounds:
- 15m sprint with a drag chute/power rack (high resistance)
- 15m sprint with a drag chute/power rack (low resistance)
- 15m sprint – no gear
- 15m sprint overspeed – from a running dive or being towed
The density is intentional. It’s not mindless all-out reps, but cycling the nervous system through its full power bandwidth.
Prepping the 100 free
Most of the sets so far have revolved around helping the drop-dead sprinter taper.
For sprinters who also dabble in the 100 freestyle—which may feel like a sprint but is ~40% aerobic—this classic set is a great way to see where your 100 freestyle is at.
The set—a series of 50s freestyle fast on around two minutes rest per rep—hits the same energy systems and stroke rates as the 100 freestyle:
- 4×50 freestyle fast on 2:00 (use a 1:3 to 1:4 work to rest ration)
A study by Terzi et al. (2021) tested this exact set and found that it very strongly correlated to 100 freestyle performance, not just in time, but stroke rate and stroke index (a measure of stroke efficiency).
In other words, do well on this set, and it’s very likely that you are ready in terms of stroke mechanics and energy systems to swim fast in the 100 free, too.
This set can be heavy in terms of lactate (around 40% higher compared to a 100m freestyle all-out), so do it early-to-mid taper and add a thorough warm-down afterwards.
Tips for Writing Taper Sprint Sets
Writing sprint sets for taper can be a little frustrating because sprinter walk such a fine line when it comes to peak performance.
A hesitation on the start, a mistimed breakout, a tempo that takes several strokes to lock in—all potentially catastrophic in a race that ends in ~20 seconds. Sprinters dabble in tenths and hundredths, which makes tapering ripe for overthinking when it comes to doing the right kind of work.
Fret not, here are some evidence-based tips for writing sprint taper sets that deliver a great taper:
- Decrease total training volume. A well-executed taper decreases training volume by 41-60% (Bosquet et al., 2007) from the beginning up to the day before competition. This is the most important lever sprinters have for winning the taper.
- Keep intensity high. Sprinters rely on power to perform on race day. Fast twitch atrophy takes around 10-14 days, and power is most sensitive to the effects of detraining. Increase rest between intervals, reduce overall yardage, but sprinters gotta keep sprinting. Keep intensity high during the taper.
- Expect to feel flat in week one. Physical fatigue begins to resolve itself quite quickly, with muscle soreness fading fast (usually within 1-2 days). But mental fatigue can linger after months of hard training, for up to a week after taper starts. Tension will remain elevated, and the taper blues doesn’t mean something is wrong with the taper.
- Manage the pre-taper block. Don’t peak the overload block right before tapering. I totally understand the instinct to do this—competition is coming up and you want to make one last big training deposit. Your biggest weeks of training should land around 4-6 weeks prior to racing—do a controlled descent into the taper so that you don’t enter it shattered.
- Reduce “grey zone” yardage. Swimmers are natural workhorses, so its hard to turn off that work ethic during taper, especially as they start feel more energetic and crisper in the water. Reduce the gray zone swimming—less than ~90% speed and faster than recovery swimming speeds. Too slow to build speed and hard enough that it increases recovery needs.
The Bottom Line
Taper is a time for recovery, but it’s not a time to totally shut things down or to coast.
These sets give sprinters and their nervous systems what they need—speed, specificity, and protects power.
So that when it’s finally race time and you’ve shaved down, squeezed into that tech suit, and the referee’s whistle blows, the only thing left will be to show the clock the results of all your hard work.
Happy sprinting!
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